Having quite literally smoked thousands of pounds of marijuana and done a whole lot of cocaine in my career, I am not unaware that the lady in the mini-van is also a potential criminal. I was speaking in generalities for the sake of making a point.

Police have been doing that since there were Police. I've certainly done it...

...I think the difference is that back in the day people trusted the Police to know which heads needed to be cracked, and which didn't. That trust is almost non-existent today, and it is mostly the fault of LE. Some of it is political fault caving to PC pressure, some of it is the fault of bad internal policy and promoting the wrong people, and some of it is the fault of LEO's not self-policing their own.

Yes. Part of the problem, as I saw it, was newer, college educated youts entering the LEO career field, and letting the power go to their heads, and not being able to differentiate between the heads that needed cracked, and those of the soccer moms of the world. Just wanting to crack everyone's head, just because they were given a badge...

Lack of what we used to call "common sense" abounds too. The "book" followers, where experience is ignored in favor of the "I know better" attitude the newer generations have. Couple that with a lack of respect for experience, and a "I don't care how you do it..." attitude, and you have new LEOs that don't learn from experience, and don't care about yours. They stumble along, hopefully not getting anyone else injured or killed, stepping on everyone's toes, until they are promoted, in order to get them off the streets into a position where hopefully, they will do the least damage.

__________________"....As far as "rights" are concerned... I look at them this way. I don't tell you what church to go to, and you don't tell me what kind of firearm I can own." GROG

If gun control laws controlled crime, we wouldn't need cops.

Quote:

Finally, I believe that punishing lawful gun owners by creating new, more onerous laws, and restricting Constitutionally guaranteed rights, when we already don't enforce the tens of thousands of gun laws we have on the books, is like beating your dog because the neighbor's dog shit in your yard.
"The Reaper"

Unfortunately, the current nature of civil liability drives much of LE policy. If a cop pulls over a DUI veteran with PH plates, and decides to leave the car parked, and give the drunk vet a ride somewhere other than jail, the cop (and his agency) incur liability if the car gets stolen or the drunk decides he's good to drive after the cop drops him somewhere. If the cop drops the drunk vet at a friend's house, and the drunk leaves and gets run over...lawsuit.

Arrest the drunk, tow the car incident to arrest...no chance of lawsuit.

Spot on. In Kansas the law states "shall arrest" and gives no discretion for LEO once field sobriety is conducted. So once field sobriety is started you are required to arrest. Now you may choose to try to be nice and not do field sobriety testing. There is a case recently that covers this scenario. To the best of my memory here is how it went down: Officer makes contact with a young lady. On the dash cam seems to be concerned but can't smell any alcohol. She says she is tired. He tells her to pull into the convenience store parking lot and try to wake herself up. He follows her into the parking lot and then leaves. So does she. She goes missing and is found in car dead in the river. She drove the car down the ramp into the water. She had cocaine and something else in her system. Her family is now suing the officer because he didn't arrest her and should have by law.

Police today have a lot less latitude on how to resolve the situation. Everybody has cameras and will screw you in a heartbeat without a thought. People you give a break to will put you in the jackpot. First rule, don't get shot or killed. Second rule, don't get sued. It's the world the "people" or "folks" want.

__________________
Wolves and alligators should be cross-bred to make wolfagators that will be silent and fast, and we'll never have to hear from those people, they will just be wolfagator shit.
-Eltrane

Are you fucking serious? That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard all week...and I'm at a senior staff planning conference, so, the bar has been set pretty high. You should be proud. - Gavin